1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates generally to intelligent electronic devices for electrical power systems, and more particularly, to an intelligent electronic device for monitoring and determining an amount of electrical power usage by a consumer, or end user, and for providing broadband Internet access to the consumer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electric utility companies (“utilities”) track electric usage by customers by using power meters. These meters track the amount of power consumed at a particular location. These locations range from power substations, to commercial businesses, to residential homes. The electric utility companies use information obtained from the power meter to charge its customers for their power consumption, i.e. revenue metering.
A popular type of power meter is the socket-type power meter, i.e., S-base or Type S meter. As its name implies, the meter itself plugs into a socket for easy installation, removal and replacement. This type of meter is used to measure energy usage and KW demand at the site of an electric utility customer. The meter is installed at the point of common coupling from the electrical utility tie and the incoming main for the electric utility customer. These meters commonly include features such as load profiling, time of use calculations, voltage measurements, current measurements and a method of testing the meters accuracy and conformity. Additionally, these meters include meter seals and anti-tampering mechanisms that insure that the utility customer does not interfere with the accurate measurements of the meter.
Traditionally, electric utilities employed meter readers to visit each of the meter locations to manually, or with a hand-held reader, read the meter. This was proven to be costly due to the fact that it required a plethora of technically trained readers that were required to walk from house to house or to each facility to read the meters. Newer type systems incorporate a low power signal that allows meter readers to read said meters using a automobile driving slowing down a street in which a bank of meters are installed. This too has been proven to be costly because it still involves meter reading personnel needing to visit the physical location. In an attempt to rectify this problem, different communication methods were attempted including land-line telephone (often using the customer's existing telephone line) and cellular data communication. Unfortunately, these technologies are subject to technical difficulties. They provide very slow communication, are generally not very reliable and often telephone land service or cell reception are unavailable.
Other meter installations include panel mounted, switchboard mounted, and circuit breaker mounted. Typically the power meter connects between utility power lines supplying electricity and a usage point, namely a residence or commercial place of business. Though not typical, a power meter may also be placed at a point within the utility's power grid to monitor power flowing through that point for distribution, power loss, or capacity monitoring. Also, power meters can be used to monitor internal customer usage, that is, handle sub-metering functions.
In today's times, electric utility companies are looking to expand the services they provide to customer so that they can generate additional revenue. Similarly, cable and telephone companies have expended their services by providing voice over IP (VoIP) and high speed Internet access. The cable and telephone companies have been able to provide these services utilizing some existing equipment, e.g., cable lines and telephone lines entering the customer location. However, additional hardware and wiring is required in most cases to extend access points to the location of the user's equipment, e.g., a computer.
Therefore, a need exists for devices, systems and methods for delivering broadband access to end users via conventional electrical distribution lines without requiring the installation of new wires or significant changes to the existing infrastructure.